The National Air and Space Museum went Hollywood when it became the first Smithsonian-affiliated spot to be featured in a movie title ("Night at the Museum 2: Escape From the Smithsonian," filmed last month). Now its Chantilly outpost is getting some time in the limelight.

Director Michael Bay was at the museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center yesterday, filming scenes for his upcoming "Transformers" sequel with stars Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox. We hear that a "super-friendly" LaBeouf signed autographs while Bay took visiting school groups on behind-the-scenes tours of the film set. The museum will stay open while the crew works through today; disappointingly, there appear to be no massive controlled explosions planned.

Record on Track for 'Idol' No. 2

"American Idol" runner-up David Archuleta has inked a record deal and is expected to release an album by the end of the year, Reuters reports.

Archuleta, 17, lost to "Idol" competitor David Cook by 12 million viewer votes on the show's season finale in May, yet still earned enough fans to impress 19 Recordings/Jive Records, where Archuleta signed a contract earlier this week. He joins Jennifer Hudson, Chris Daughtry and Clay Aiken, other "Idol" also-rans who leveraged their appearances on the show into film, recording and Broadway opportunities.

End Notes

Coupled: "Stop-Loss" co-stars Ryan Phillippe, 33, and Abby Cornish, 25 -- after months of skirting rumors of coupledom -- were a cozy item at Thursday night's Australians in Film Breakthrough Awards in Los Angeles, People magazine reports. Cornish was up for an award; Phillippe rubbed her back and waited patiently as she worked the room.

Quoted: "A guy like him should shut his face." -- Clint Eastwood, telling the Guardian newspaper how he feels about fellow director Spike Lee's criticism of Eastwood's "Flags of Our Fathers." While promoting his upcoming World War II movie, "Miracle at St. Anna," Lee had told reporters that Eastwood should have included black soldiers in his Iwo Jima film; arguing historical accuracy, Eastwood told the Guardian that black troops were on Iwo Jima, "but they didn't raise the flag. The story is . . . the famous flag-raising picture, and they didn't do that." Lee's response: "The man is not my father and we're not on a plantation," he told ABC News. "I didn't personally attack him. . . . He sounds like an angry old man right there."